An article on what being a 24-hour game means, and the ettiquette you, as a player, should uphold to support this rule.

Twenty-Four Hours and the White Headband

My first and most important point is this:  Knight Realms is a 24-Hour game.  This isn’t a suggestion, it is a rule.  It is just as important as the skills on your card or your body points, perhaps more so at times.  From Lay-On Friday night until the final Hold on Sunday, we immerse ourselves in roles, be them PC or NPC.  There should be few to no reasons to break this rule (examples being permission to sleep OOG specifically from the Director or to Marshal).  If for some reason you are one of those select people in a white-headband, it’s then your job to remain as unobtrusive as possible, and to be able to any marshal that asks you a completely legit reason as to why you are not “there”.  Major game areas should be avoided at all costs, and there should be no interactions made with people who are still IG.  This also means places where a role-playing scene is being acted out should be left alone, and we should never be seeing someone in a white head band just “hanging out” in the Inn for no good reason.  Nothing is worse than having a serious, tense RP moment interrupted by an obviously OOG person.  This is a little more difficult for Marshals, but they should still try to remain as ‘invisible’ to the rest of the environment as possible while still doing their job.  Remember, also, that if you are injured, and as such need to drop out of game or become non-combat, you HAVE to let a Rules Marshal know so that this new status can be marked on your card.  Being injured doesn’t mean you can pick or chose when you are IG (like when someone comes to deliver magic items or something) and when you are OOG (like when that vampire attacks you in the night).  It means you are either completely OOG, and in your cabin recouping (if its not bad enough to go home just yet) or you are Non-Combat, which means you can be killed by someone pointing at you and saying so.  There is no ‘grey area’ when it comes to RP.

Switching Sides

Now, this all sounds really serious doesn’t it?  It is a game after all, and we’re here to have fun.  These rules aren’t to say someone is going to give you Negative RP points for chatting quietly with your friends in your cabin about the football game the night before, or for quietly decompressing and recapping the night’s events in the kitchen at 4am while grabbing some of Steve’s tasty ham.  We’re human after all, and this is, as I said, a game. The problem lies in people claiming they are OOG when they should not be, or switching IG or OOG as the situation before them fits as I mentioned in the examples for injured people in the paragraph above.  “KR is a 24-Hour Game” means that at the drop of a hat you should be able to fall back In-Game, prepared to face the issue before you as your character.  Its fine if you are discussing your midterm with your best friend as you wander through the woods, but the second you are faced with an encounter, be it good or ill, PC or NPC, you should immediately be back in character to confront it, no longer Rick, the college student but Verran, the cavalier.  The only real exceptions to this are if you are at Logistics or in the shower/bathroom, but even the walk to said bathhouse in the middle of the night is still IG.  In this way you are giving the people who are InGame and trying to Role-play the priority.

The Drudgeriers of Downtime

A very valid point that was brought up on the RP Forums while discussing this topic was a reason why we sometimes find it hard to continue RPing in the downtime, something that was a recurring factor last event.  Sometimes, when not confronted with direct conflict (combat or otherwise), it’s hard to just Role-Play your character’s everyday behavior.  This is one of the most difficult, but I think many will tell you, most rewarding levels of RP to reach.  Everyone for the most part as seen that list of questions to help you develop a fuller character, favorite foods, colors, hobbies, and so on.  Remember these things when downtime comes about.  The hardest part, sometimes, is simply remembering WHY your character is in Travance.  There has to be a reason why you’d still be in a place that can kill you at every turn, and often tries to (and if you’re lucky less often succeeds).  I know people that have had to completely rework or reinvent their characters because there became absolutely NO reason why he/she would still stay in Travance (and I know people that have retired characters for just that reason).  Figure out why your character is crazy enough to be in Travance, and why she wishes to stay.  And if he/she has no reason, RP that as well.  Another major help to letting your character become spontaneous and second nature to play is to immerse yourself in the lores, histories, and maps available online.  There isn’t a whole ton, but definitely read what’s there.  Know the area your character came from, on both the small and broad scale. Together, these tips should help you RP a ‘real person’ in any downtime that occurs at an event.

The Player's Responsibility

It’s everyone’s responsibility to RP to the best of their abilities, and to respect other’s rights to play their characters.  RP Marshals can be (and usually are) everywhere, and every one of them has the right to call anyone that breaks these points of etiquette out and give them RP warnings or Negative Role-play points.  In truth, though, if anyone asks you to quiet down or stop talking OOG, don’t give them attitude about it.  Either move to a less obtrusive location, like your cabin or the parking lot, to finish your conversation, or better yet apologize and fall back into character.  Often times I notice people ignoring the words of marshals when it comes to RP—that needs to stop.  This game is based on the suspension of disbelief; marshals are only here to protect that suspension for the benefit of everyone else.  Respect others and you will be respected.  Let’s show each other that simple common courtesy.